IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/ijlaec/v66y2023i3d10.1007_s41027-023-00453-6.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Inequality of Opportunity in Changing Access to Employment in India: A Panel Study

Author

Listed:
  • Shreshti Rawat

    (Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research)

Abstract

Labour market segmentation on the lines of caste, religion, gender, and parental characteristics is well documented in the literature. Evidence suggests that these factors affect an individual’s ability to access formal employment. Such factors are beyond an individual's control, and inequality in outcomes accruing to them has been conceptualised as inequality of opportunity. This analysis uses the Human Opportunity Index (HOI) framework to examine the inequality of opportunity in accessing formal employment opportunities using the India Human Development Survey (IHDS) panel. Further, it identifies the circumstances that explain the mobility of individuals from informal employment to formal employment using Dominance Analysis (DA). It is observed that there is low coverage of formal employment opportunities along with high inequality in access due to circumstances of the individuals. Region of residence, highest male and highest female education in the household are pertinent circumstances that contribute to inequality of opportunity in access to formal employment. Further, these circumstances have been identified as strong determinants of an individual’s ability to move from informal to formal employment.

Suggested Citation

  • Shreshti Rawat, 2023. "Inequality of Opportunity in Changing Access to Employment in India: A Panel Study," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 66(3), pages 739-764, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:ijlaec:v:66:y:2023:i:3:d:10.1007_s41027-023-00453-6
    DOI: 10.1007/s41027-023-00453-6
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s41027-023-00453-6
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s41027-023-00453-6?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Saavedra-Chanduví, Jaime & Molinas, José R. & De Barros, Ricardo Paes & Ferreira, Francisco H. G., 2009. "Measuring Inequality of Opportunities in Latin America and the Caribbean," IDB Publications (Books), Inter-American Development Bank, number 361.
    2. Shiney Chakraborty & Priyanka Chatterjee, 2021. "Women Entrepreneurs in India: Where Do They Stand?," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 64(4), pages 1069-1092, December.
    3. Mehrotra, Santosh K., 2019. "Informal employment trends in the Indian economy persistent informality, but growing positive development," ILO Working Papers 995066393502676, International Labour Organization.
    4. Hyun H. Son, 2013. "Inequality of Human Opportunities in Developing Asia," Asian Development Review, MIT Press, vol. 30(2), pages 110-130, September.
    5. Ito, Takahiro, 2009. "Caste discrimination and transaction costs in the labor market: Evidence from rural North India," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(2), pages 292-300, March.
    6. K.V. Ramaswamy, 2008. "Wage Inequality in Indian Manufacturing - Is it Trade, Technology or Labour Regulations?," Labor Economics Working Papers 22361, East Asian Bureau of Economic Research.
    7. John E. Roemer, 2002. "Equality of opportunity: A progress report," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 19(2), pages 455-471.
    8. Mehtabul Azam, 2015. "Intergenerational Occupational Mobility among Men in India," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(10), pages 1389-1408, October.
    9. Timothy Besley & Robin Burgess, 2004. "Can Labor Regulation Hinder Economic Performance? Evidence from India," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 119(1), pages 91-134.
    10. David G. Blanchflower & Andrew J. Oswald, 2011. "International Happiness," NBER Working Papers 16668, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Rosa Abraham, 2019. "Informal Employment and the Structure of Wages in India: A Review of Trends," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 65(S1), pages 102-122, November.
    12. Gaston Yalonetzky, 2012. "A dissimilarity index of multidimensional inequality of opportunity," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 10(3), pages 343-373, September.
    13. Enrico A. Marcelli & Manuel Pastor & Pascale M. Joassart, 1999. "Estimating the Effects of Informal Economic Activity: Evidence from Los Angeles County," Journal of Economic Issues, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(3), pages 579-607, September.
    14. World Bank, 2013. "World Development Report 2014 [Informe sobre el desarrollo mundial 2014, Riesgo y oportunidad : la administración del riesgo como instrumento de desarrollo - Panorama general]," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 16092, August.
    15. Joseph N. Luchman, 2021. "Determining relative importance in Stata using dominance analysis: domin and domme," Stata Journal, StataCorp LLC, vol. 21(2), pages 510-538, June.
    16. B. P. Vani & S. Madheswaran, 2018. "Inequalities of Human Opportunities in India: A State-level Analysis," Indian Journal of Human Development, , vol. 12(2), pages 248-264, August.
    17. S. Mahendra Dev, 2018. "Labour Market Inequalities in India: Dimensions and Policies," Indian Journal of Human Development, , vol. 12(2), pages 217-235, August.
    18. Ana Abras & Alejandro Hoyos & Ambar Narayan & Sailesh Tiwari, 2013. "Inequality of opportunities in the labor market: evidence from life in transition surveys in Europe and Central Asia," IZA Journal of Labor & Development, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 2(1), pages 1-22, December.
    19. Ravi Srivastava, 2019. "Emerging Dynamics of Labour Market Inequality in India: Migration, Informality, Segmentation and Social Discrimination," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 62(2), pages 147-171, June.
    20. Diganta Mukherjee & Saswati Das, 2008. "Role of Parental Education in Schooling and Child Labour Decision: Urban India in the Last Decade," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 89(2), pages 305-322, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Johanna Fajardo-Gonzalez, 2016. "Inequality of opportunity in adult health in Colombia," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 14(4), pages 395-416, December.
    2. Mkupete Jaah Mkupete & Dieter Von Fintel & Ronelle Burger, 2022. "Decomposing inequality of opportunity in child health in Tanzania: The role of access to water and sanitation," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(11), pages 2465-2480, November.
    3. Facundo Quiroga‐Martínez & Esteban Fernández‐Vázquez, 2021. "Education as a key to reduce spatial inequalities and informality in Argentinean regional labour markets," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 13(1), pages 177-189, February.
    4. Monojit Chatterji & Homagni Choudhury, 2010. "The Changing Inter-Industry Wage Structure of the Organised Manufacturing Sector in India, 1973-74 to 2003-04," Dundee Discussion Papers in Economics 244, Economic Studies, University of Dundee.
    5. Ashish Singh, 2011. "Inequality of Opportunity in Indian Children: The Case of Immunization and Nutrition," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 30(6), pages 861-883, December.
    6. Andrew Jones & John Roemer & Pedro Rosa Dias, 2014. "Equalising opportunities in health through educational policy," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 43(3), pages 521-545, October.
    7. Mohamed Amara & Hatem Jemmali, 2018. "Do Tunisian Young Children Have Equal Chances in Access to Basic Services? A Special Focus on Opportunities in Healthcare and Nutrition," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 11(2), pages 383-403, April.
    8. Sripad Motiram, 2018. "Inequality of Opportunity in India: Concepts, Measurement and Empirics," Indian Journal of Human Development, , vol. 12(2), pages 236-247, August.
    9. Luis Fernando Gamboa & Fábio D. Waltenberg, 2011. "Inequality of opportunity in educational achievement in Latin America: evidence from PISA 2006-2009," Documentos de Trabajo 8895, Universidad del Rosario.
    10. Ashok Kotwal & Bharat Ramaswami & Wilima Wadhwa, 2011. "Economic Liberalization and Indian Economic Growth: What's the Evidence?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 49(4), pages 1152-1199, December.
    11. Eliana Carranza & Federica Saliola & Truman Packard, 2025. "Regulating Markets So More People Find Better Jobs," Social Protection Discussion Papers and Notes 197248, The World Bank.
    12. Anne Darline Youmbi & Betrand Fesuh Nono & Christian Zamo Akono, 2024. "Inequality in opportunity of access to antenatal care in Cameroon: multilevel modelling, spatial analysis and decomposition methods," Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics, Springer;Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics, vol. 160(1), pages 1-17, December.
    13. Franziska Lieselotte Ohnsorge & Rogerson,Richard & Zoe Leiyu Xie, 2024. "Jobless Development," Policy Research Working Paper Series 10928, The World Bank.
    14. Hatem Jemmali, 2016. "Inequality of Opportunities among Tunisian Children over Time and Space," Working Papers 1048, Economic Research Forum, revised 09 Jan 2016.
    15. Hadi Esfahani & Roksana Bahramitash & Bin Lin, 2016. "Gender and Labour Allocation: the Role of Institutions and Policies in the Allocation of Female and Male Labor," Working Papers 998, Economic Research Forum, revised May 2016.
    16. Wietzke, Frank-Borge, 2014. "Pathways from jobs to social cohesion," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6804, The World Bank.
    17. Kanbur, Ravi, 2016. "Capability, Opportunity, Outcome - - And Equality," Working Papers 250027, Cornell University, Department of Applied Economics and Management.
    18. Choutagunta Abishek S., 2019. "Effects of Labour Regulation on Manufacturing Firms in India: A Leximetric Approach," Asian Journal of Law and Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 10(1), pages 1-15, April.
    19. Makate, Marshall, 2024. "Balancing the scales? Evaluating the impact of results-based financing on maternal health outcomes and related inequality of opportunity in Zimbabwe," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 359(C).
    20. Huda Mohamed Mukhtar Ahmed & Eiman Adil Mohamed Osman & Hatim Ameer Mahran, 2020. "Inequality of Opportunity in The Labor Market: Evidence from Sudan," Journal of Social Science Studies, Macrothink Institute, vol. 7(2), pages 38-56, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Labour market segmentation; Inequality of opportunity; Formal employment; Access inequality;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • J42 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Monopsony; Segmented Labor Markets
    • O17 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Formal and Informal Sectors; Shadow Economy; Institutional Arrangements

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:ijlaec:v:66:y:2023:i:3:d:10.1007_s41027-023-00453-6. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.